Grocery timeline: 2012

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January
We reveal how escalating duties have forced AB InBev to cut the alcohol content of its key lagers. Things get weird as Kraft mixes Dairy Milk with Philadelphia. And the month ends on a low as a round of redundancies begins at the The Co-op Group… Tesco issues its first profit warning in 20 years.

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Kraft creams Cadbury with cheese
Buffett buys up £500m more of Tesco
‘Frustrated’ Tesco ditches eco-labels
Unilever unveils new blend for Flora
AB InBev lowers lager abvs

February
HMRC pledges to stem the flow of smuggled beer into the UK after a damning NAO report. As Poundstretcher buys bust discounter Ugo, we reveal how it owed Nisa £1.9m before going belly up. Suppliers accuse Waitrose of abuse for imposing £60 late-delivery penalties.

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Moshi Monsters enter canned pasta
Bakkavör scraps English Village
Wood to do Tesco marketing revamp
Carling refreshes iPint app
Tesco slides again in Kantar rankings

March
Before the price drop, the price hike. Tesco raised prices 2% prior to its Big Price Drop, we reveal. Two weeks later Richard Brasher walks as Phil Clarke steps in to steer Tesco’s ailing UK business. The pasty tax is revealed, Birds Eye goes on sale and Imperial Tobacco says sales are down in trial dark stores.

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Mackerel fishermen lose MSC status
More to share: Rolo turns into a bar
DBC Foodservice calls in receivers
Brakes cashes in on DBC’s collapse
DBC for sale as cash crunch bites

April
C&C Group says minimum alcohol pricing will kill off white cider sales. Company Watch warns that 25% of Britain’s biggest fmcg players are vulnerable to insolvency in the worsening economy. Tesco unveils a new ad campaign focusing on quality, hinting at Clarke’s new vision for the retailer.

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Morrisons revamps own label health
P&H snaps up Pepsi’s wholesale arm
Morrisons’ Pickavance packs up
Waitrose & discounters top ranking
PepsiCo in Walkers recruitment drive

May
Tesco is a “wounded animal”, says one supplier after an event on in-store collaboration. Olympic fever kicks in - 78% of indies near Games venues say it will help sales. Diageo comes under fire on Twitter as BrewDog claims foul play at an awards ceremony.

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Booker swoops on Makro
Own-label NPD overtakes brands
Morrisons to axe Rathbones bakery
Strongbow launches pear cider NPD
Milk Link & Arla to form superdairy

June
The Jubilee gives grocery a £200m sales surge, with Asda and Sainsbury’s enjoying the biggest boost. Following George Osborne’s May u-turn on the pasty tax, Sainsbury’s performs another: it goes back to stocking pre-frozen mackerel on its counters as a result of shortages.

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TU clothing to be available online
Olympic 24-hour Sundays for Tesco
Corrupt Sainsbury’s buyer jailed
Clubcard key to Clarke’s new strategy
Pascale loses Ella’s Kitchen dispute

July
As Sainsbury’s John Maylam and accomplices are jailed for corruption, 47% of survey respondents tell us they’ve known salespeople to offer bribes. The cost of Britvic’s Fruit Shoot recall forecast to hit £25m. Yet more misery for brewers: we reveal how UK beer sales have fallen by 164m pints.

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The Grocer Cup
Morrisons to sell ‘ugly’ fruit & veg
Health Lottery cuts prizes
Tesco on coupon offensive at pumps
The Co-op agrees £1bn refinancing

August
London 2012 gets into full swing but not everyone is happy: the FWD blames soaring duty fraud for a 12% fall in beer sales LOCOG is blamed for poor forecasting as venues face availability problems after the event, 52% of London indies say business suffered.

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Portas pilot Margate bosses quit
Nestlé shrinks Quality Street by 18%
Arla moves Anchor butter to UK
Unexpected item in self-service poll
Tesco to add traffic lights in U-turn

September
Britvic kicks off a campaign to mark the return of Fruit Shoot after its recall… then we reveal its struggles to regain shelf space. After Tesco’s u-turn on traffic light labelling, Aldi follows suit. A French study links cancer to a Monsanto herbicide and GM maize resistant to it. We break the story.

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‘Cancer link’ to weedkiller & GM crop
Experts on Monsanto/GM cancer trial
Shoppers cash in on Asda PG fiasco
Scientists shrug off GM/cancer critics
Scan-as-you-shop to roll out at Tesco

October
Rising shipping costs are set to send food prices soaring, we reveal, as Maersk Line hikes prices 30%. A Grocer investigation proves a weekly shop at Aldi can be 40% cheaper than at one of the big four. Tesco gears up to launch Soil & Seed veg boxes. Sainsbury’s ditches the Red Tractor logo.

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Tesco axes New Covent Garden soups
Tesco unveils new organic veg boxes
Jamie Oliver rolls into Boots
Kimberly-Clark axes EU Huggies ops
Morrisons extends Xmas vouchers

November
Morrisons’ group commercial director Richard Hodgson is ousted after a tough year at the retailer. Asda draws up tentative plans to enter convenience retail with two new forecourt stores. Sainsbury’s says convenience has been a key driver of its sterling 2012 results.

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Lidl scotch a ‘collector’s item’
Morrisons unveils Xmas ads
Ladies cared for at Asda CoD launch
Tesco launches party food deliveries
Vion mulls UK sell-off

December
Just 3% of shoppers recognise a logo launched to mark sustainable palm oil use, a survey for The Grocer reveals. We also show how the cost of Christmas dinner has climbed 14.3% since 2008, with sprouts up 70%. Phil Clarke says Tesco is ‘likely’ to leave the US as Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason bows out.

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